Are You Eating an Acidic Diet? 10 Ways to Know for Sure


If you’re having trouble losing weight, have brain fog, bad skin, trouble sleeping, and tummy troubles, you have an ACID problem!

There’s a lot of factors you must look at to lose the acid and inflammation that are causing your specific health concerns – diet, lifestyle, exercise, medications, supplements (or lack thereof), and stress levels.

Once you know how acidic you are and where it may be coming from, you can then put an action plan into place to make the lasting changes you need to balance your health.

However, there are easy-to-follow guidelines for what makes up an alkaline diet and what makes up an acidic diet.

From there, you can get a pretty clear indication of how lifestyle choices may be tipping the scale in either direction – alkaline or acid.

With that said, I’ve put together the top 10 indicators of an acid-forming diet, so read through each one below to get an overall picture – plus you’ll find some great tips for how to get your body into a more alkaline state.

Let’s jump right in.

  1. Take the quiz and find out!

We offer a quick and easy quiz to find out how acidic your body is. In 90 seconds, you will know whether you are an ALKALINE ACE or an ACID-HOLIC!

HOW ACIDIC ARE YOU? Take the quiz now.

After you do, keep reading to find out what’s causing your diet to be acidic and what to do about it.

  1. You use artificial sweeteners regularly.

Artificial sweeteners are the #1 most acidic, poisonous ingredient on the planet. And the scary thing is that even if you never touch those little packets on the table in restaurants, you could still be consuming artificial sweeteners in other foods like:

  • Yogurt
  • Gum
  • Throat lozenges
  • Fizzy drinks beyond just diet soda
  • Chewable/gummy vitamins (check yours and switch right away – yikes!)
  • Dessert mixes
  • Processed diet foods
  • Anything sugarless

If you’re eating any of these foods with artificial sweeteners on a regular basis, no matter how good [read alkaline] your diet may be, you’re still acidic!

This is why it’s essential you read food labels and get to know ingredients even if (especially if) they have hard to pronounce mystery foods.

Artificial sweeteners go by names like:

  • AminoSweet
  • Aspartame
  • Sucralose
  • Splenda
  • Saccharin
  • Truvia
  • Purevia
  • Erythritol
  1. You eat more sugar than 1 serving of fruit per day.

Some fruits are alkaline and you can eat as many of them as you want. These include avocados, tomatoes, lemons, limes, coconuts, grapefruit, watermelon, and pomegranates.

But with any other fruit, it counts as part of the 20% of what you can eat that is acidic.

Kelly Ripa talked about her 80/20 alkaline lifestyle with Ryan Seacrest a couple weeks ago on LIVE WITH KELLY & RYAN.

She was talking about my new book, GET OFF YOUR ACID! If you haven’t seen the clip yet, check it out here!

So, in regards to eating fruit, the easy way to remember it is… Beyond 1 serving of fruit a day, you’re in acid territory.

Now remember, there are ways to fight the acid and enjoy the fruit you love. Smoothies are a great option, because you’re combining sugary fruit with healthy fats and green leafy vegetables, which fight acid. I also have lots of dessert recipes in the archives that do the same thing for the fruits you love.

So if it’s a sugary fruit (i.e. banana) make sure you eat one a day, it should be in season, and try to combine it with a healthy fat such as a raw nut butter (yes, I understand this breaks the rules of food combing, but a little bit of gut dysbiosis is better than having your insulin spike which stores fat!)

  1. You eat processed foods and gluten more than a couple of times a day.

Most people eat gluten and fungus-filled processed foods all day long, so if you’re working towards an alkaline lifestyle and slowly cutting back your refined carb intake, that’s awesome.


Doing it that way is so much better than trying to cut it out cold turkey, which feels like deprivation and is not sustainable.

That said, processed foods are highly acidic. And most gluten foods are too, like pasta, bread, pastries, muffins, snack foods, and cereals.

If it feels difficult to give up those foods, track how often you’re eating them with the aim to cut down, and reserve times you do eat gluten or processed foods for when it’s really worth it for you.

  1. You drink beverages other than water throughout your day.

Start your day with coffee? Then you move on to soda? Or you think you’re doing the “healthy” thing by choosing seltzer? I’ve got bad news for you… Those are all acidic. Yes, including sparkling water or seltzer.

The best and simplest thing you can do for your health is just to switch to water as much as possible.

Maybe you can’t make the switch from coffee to water just yet. That’s okay. Remember, you’ve got 20% to work with if you’re aiming for the 80/20 alkaline lifestyle (where you eat 80% alkaline and 20% acidic).

Switch to water instead of fruit juice, soda, or seltzer throughout the rest of your day and you’re making huge progress towards getting off your acid.

Just make sure the water you’re drinking is alkaline. Choose filtered water and add a slice of lemon or lime. Better yet, supercharge it with some Daily Greens or Daily Minerals.

  1. You have trouble sleeping, and you’re always tired.

Energy level is a strong indicator of how acidic your diet and lifestyle are, and is the FIRST stage of acidosis. Want to know what the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th stages are? You will be SHOCKED – check them out here.

If you’re eating well, you’ll have more energy and get better quality rest at night. If you’re eating junk, you’ll feel sluggish, get a jolt of energy right around the time you need to go to bed, wake during the night, and feel like crap the next day.

This is a total downward spiral because what do you eat if you’re feeling like C.R.A.P (Completely Refined And Processed) - More junk!

Next time you have difficulty sleeping, whether it’s getting to sleep at night or staying asleep, resolve to eat more alkaline for a day, even if you’re feeling sluggish. You’ll notice an immediate difference in how you feel.

If you are having trouble sleeping, or waking up to pee in the middle of the night, it is NOT a sleep problem – it is an ACID problem!

The body is MOST acidic between 1 and 3 A.M., peaking at 5 A.M. So listen to the signs, don’t eat more than 3 hours before bed, and keep it light.

p.s Don’t forget your Alkamind Daily Minerals BEFORE sleep, and you will not only have your best night sleep ever, but will wake up with AMAZING energy!

  1. You have a drink more than once every couple of weeks.

Alcohol is acidic, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ever have a drink if you want to.

Keep a few things in mind if you’re going to drink:

  • Not all alcohol is created equal. Some booze has more acid than other drinks, so choose wisely.
  • Alcohol counts as part of the 20% acid in the 80/20 alkaline lifestyle. You could technically have a drink every night and still stay alkaline, but you wouldn’t have much room for other acidic choices within that 20%.
  • When you drink, you’re more likely to make poor eating choices, get dehydrated, sleep poorly, and wake up the next morning craving acidic hangover food. So be careful to not let the occasional drink turn into an all-out acid fest.
  1. You eat more than a serving of meat per day.

Animal-based proteins are acidic across the board. And most Americans eat FAR too much protein.

The Center for Disease Control recommends around 46 grams of protein per day for women and 56 grams for men. But most Americans eat 3 to 5 times this recommendation!

For instance, a 6-ounce serving of chicken has 45 grams of protein. So that’s your whole daily allowance right there. If you’re eating more than one serving of animal protein, your health, weight, and complexion are paying the price.

Compare that to plant-based proteins, where you can have a serving of raw almonds, a half-cup of high protein beans, and a scoop of vegan protein powder in your green smoothie, and you’re getting the same amount of protein with far more vitamins and minerals and far less acid!

And did you know that if you are eating more than 15% protein in your daily diet, it is turning to SUGAR in your liver!

The result? Insulin spike, fat storage, and chronic inflammation!

After 115,000 patient visits over the past 18 years, I can tell you that eating too much protein is single handedly one of the biggest and most common mistakes I see people make, THINKING they are doing something beneficial, when in fact, it is inflammatory and acid-forming.

  1. You consume any dairy products more than once a day.

Similar to meat, all dairy products are acidic. This is not just about cow’s milk, but also includes yogurt, butter, cheese, cream, and of course, ice cream.

Most people have bought into the marketing myth that dairy is good for you. But the reality is, there are far better ways to get calcium than from milk, and with a lot less acid.

In fact, milk leaches calcium from your bones (I know, I was SHOCKED when I heard this as well! I grew up having to drink milk EVERY night….

WHY? You know, the milk mustache, it makes my bones strong – WRONG!

Don’t shoot the messenger. I dive into this big time in my new book in the DAIRY IS SCARY chapter, but for now, here is what you need to know. In milk, there is a 10:1 ratio of calcium to magnesium, which makes it virtually impossible to absorb the calcium.

In addition, because of the lactose sugar and the phosphoric acid, your body NEEDS more calcium to neutralize the acid than it is receiving.

  1. Test for it.

Did you know that there’s an accurate way to test the pH of your body from day to day?

I call this the rise and shine test because you can use pH test strips to measure your saliva first thing in the morning and your urine the first and/or second time you go to the restroom.

This is going to give you the best indication day to day of how your food choices are affecting your pH.

We sell the most accurate pH test strips available on the market today, and they come on their own or with our Alkaline Starter Pack. You get:


  • A 30-serving canister of Daily Greens
  • A 30-serving canister of Daily Minerals
  • A 20-ounce Shaker Bottle to mix your Greens, Minerals, or your Alkamind Daily Protein (BPA and phthalate free of course)
  • Plus 125 Alkamind pH Test Strips that give you accurate results within 15 seconds. What you INSPECT, you will RESPECT!

Get your Alkaline Starter Pack today!

#1 Amazon Bestseller!

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.